As part of the process of forming natural hard cheese, such as cheddar or mozzarella, divided curd is placed under pressure to cement the small curd particles together. Traditionally, the pressed cheese curd is allowed to form a surface rind before being covered for curing, e.g., with melted paraffin. Current hard cheese making processes minimize the wasteful formation of rind by covering the cheese curds for curing immediately subsequent to pressing. It has become the practice in the cheese industry to produce hard cheese in bulk by filling large rectangular boxes with cut curd, and enclosing and pressing the curd within these boxes. Quite large blocks of bulk cheese are produced by this method, a cheddar cheese block typically weighing 640 pounds.
Conventionally, bulk cheese boxes are made of plywood and metal, painted with a non-toxic paint and then coated with paraffin wax. Conventional plywood and metal bulk cheese boxes are comprised of a substantial number of components and require a significant amount of time to set up and knock down. Between each use, the wooden components must be reconditioned, and the wooden and metal components must be rewaxed.
The sticky paraffin wax used to coat conventional cheese curing boxes clings to whatever it contacts and tends to pick up dirt and dust, which provides difficulties in maintaining cleanliness of the box components and of the immediate environment. Furthermore, the wood and metal parts create a drab appearance in the cheese curing area.
It would be desirable to have bulk cheese curing boxes which can be assembled, disassembled and prepared for reuse with minimal effort, and to this end it would be desirable to eliminate wooden parts which require refinishing and rewaxing with multiple use, and to reduce the large number of components conventional wood-metal curing box assemblies. It is also desirable that the sticky paraffin be eliminated in order to further promote cleanliness of the cheese curing boxes and in the cheese curing area.